Criminal Inquiry Urged In Aids Lab Scandal

November 06, 1991|By John Crewdson, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — Angered by what he views as waffling by the Bush administration, U.S. Rep. John Dingell is pushing for a criminal investigation of the government`s leading AIDS researcher, Dr. Robert C. Gallo.

A preliminary examination of Gallo`s research by the National Institutes of Health has found that a landmark 1984 article in which Gallo reported isolating the AIDS virus contains falsified data.

But the Michigan Democrat, whose powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee oversees the NIH, is focusing not on the scientific aspects of the Gallo case but on whether Gallo and others are guilty of perjury, patent fraud and obstruction of justice.

In a scathing letter last week to Michael J. Astrue, general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, Dingell demanded to know

``precisely what steps`` the administration intends to take with regard to the potential criminal aspects of the Gallo case.

Dingell said he was ``particularly concerned`` about ``a potential statute of limitations bar`` to possible perjury charges in connection with sworn statements made by Gallo about his research during a 1986 dispute with French scientists.

The possible criminal violations mentioned by Dingell involve Gallo`s creation of a blood test for AIDS that later was patented by the federal government. The patent has produced millions of dollars in income for NIH and hundreds of thousands for Gallo personally.

The possible violations trace back to 1986, when the Pasteur Institute of Paris brought several legal actions against the U.S. government stemming from its suspicion that Gallo`s AIDS test actually had been developed with an AIDS virus loaned to him by Pasteur scientists.

The government denied the French accusations and the case was settled out of court. But the ongoing NIH investigation now has produced conclusive genetic evidence that the virus Gallo used to make the test was the one sent to him from France.

The possible criminal violations identified by Dingell`s staff, which are detailed in a 100-page report entitled ``The Great AIDS Cover-Up,`` fall into three main areas:

- Whether Gallo and others are guilty of fraud in connection with a second government patent, incorporated into the patent on the blood test, that contains much of the same data alleged by NIH investigators to have been falsified in the 1984 article.

- Whether Gallo knowingly lied under oath when he described his AIDS research in a 1986 sworn declaration given to Justice Department lawyers assigned to defend the AIDS test patent against the challenge by the French.

- Whether Gallo and others, including former senior NIH and HHS officials, knowingly provided false and misleading information about the circumstances of Gallo`s purported discovery of the AIDS virus and his creation of the blood test to the Justice Department.

Dingell`s most pressing concern is the sworn declaration, which Gallo signed on Nov. 8, 1986.

The five-year statute of limitations on any perjury prosecution involving those statements would normally expire on Friday.

The Gallo declaration contains several assertions about his AIDS research that congressional investigators believe are not supported by laboratory data. According to sources familiar with its contents, the Dingell ``cover-up`` report also identifies numerous apparently untrue statements in the patent application and the voluminous briefs filed by government lawyers in the various legal actions brought by the Pasteur Institute.

In addition to expressing anger at HHS`s relative inaction in the face of the impending deadline, Dingell`s letter notes that several current HHS officials, including Assistant Secretary for Health James Mason, were involved in preparing the government`s legal response to the French challenge.

Capitol Hill sources said Astrue has not yet responded to Dingell`s demand for information on whether HHS has ``taken any steps to investigate their role in this matter.``